Charlotte Smith hosts mentor Sylvia Hatchell, UNC as Elon Women’s Basketball hold season opener at Schar Center

Mentor vs Protégé at Schar Center Tuesday night

ELON, N.C–If you know women’s basketball, you know the names, Sylvia Hatchell and Charlotte Smith. The two are UNC legends in their own right. Hatchell notched her 1,000 career win last season, joining a select club of only four coaches in women’s basketball.One of those wins came in the 1994 NCAA Championship game.

With seven-tenths of a second left and down two points, Stephanie Yelton (neé Lawrence) inbounded the ball to Smith who drained a three-point buzzer-beater to win the first (and only) women’s NCAA Championship in program history. Smith’s shot was regarded as the most exciting moment in NCAA Tournament history–perhaps until the 2018 NCAA Tournament, that is.

Yesterday, Hatchell and Smith tipped-off the 2018-19 season on opposing benches. Hatchell began her 33rd season as head coach of the University of North Carolina Women’s Basketball.  Across the score table, Charlotte Smith entered her seventh season as head coach of Elon Women’s Basketball.

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On the court, Hatchell earned her 1,006th win as UNC defeated Elon 100-69 on Tuesday night. Back-to-back CAA Champions Elon jumped out to an early six-point lead against in-state rivals, but eventually, the Tar Heels settled in.  UNC tied up the game four times before closing out the first quarter with an 18-17 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Elon shot at a 43.8% clip in the first quarter and held UNC to 25% from the floor. However, the Phoenix were unable to hold their opponent to under 50% for the remainder of the game. Elon struggled with transition defense and was 1-12 from the arc, compared to UNC’s 11 three-pointers.

Hatchell was very pleased that her team was able to play an up-tempo game and take advantage in transition. “We got off to a little slow, shaky start,” said Hatchell in the postgame press conference. “We had what six in double figures and you know one time they were beating us on the board 21 to 10. So we finally got going rebounding but we just got off to a really slow start. But you know, I thought we gave it a lot of effort.”

As for Elon, giving up easy buckets really hurt the team, “we allowed too many transition points in the second half and throughout the remainder of the game and that kind of hurt us,” said coach Smith after the game.

However, she was pleased with a handful of things she saw from her team, “Overall I am very proud of my team and pleased with some things that I saw tonight. I felt like we got off to a really good start in terms of execution and getting things that we wanted to get out of our offensive sets.”

Both coaches were impressed with how their team handled adversity throughout the game–UNC with early fouls, and Elon with early injuries, including what appeared to be a painful knee injury to Jada Graves in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve not really had a chance to gel as a team because we’ve had so many injuries even in the preseason,” Smith told the media postgame. “Of course this is not what I anticipated for our home opener,  but it just goes back to what we’ve done all preseason and we make adjustments and keep moving forward.”

Nothing but respect

Aside from the x’s and o’s of the game, both teams seemed pleased to match-up against each other as Elon Women’s Basketball celebrated their first home game at the new Schar Center.

Hatchell opened her postgame remarks by recounting what she told Smith before the game, “You know, in all my 33 years … the only two places we’ve ever played on their home court that wasn’t an ACC school was for you.”

It was her way of sharing to what degree she admires Smith as a person and a professional. “I said, ‘I wouldn’t do that for many people, but I’ll do it for you’. She’s really special and it’s been a great fit for her here at Elon and I’m just proud of what she’s doing.”

When asked about playing against her former coach, Smith told High Post Hoops, “It’s an honor to play against Coach Hatchell and I’m just so grateful for everything that she’s poured into me. I am because of her.”

In fact, that made for some difficulty in her coaching approach. Smith admittedly models her systems off Hatchell and the UNC system she knows so well. That meant coaching on the fly at times, “We resemble each other a lot in terms of some of the things that we’re doing. So it makes it a little bit complicated because  … every call that they called them telling the girls, ‘This is what they’re doing.’ And then the calls that we make, ‘This is where they’re doing.’

Smith also admitted to having some nerves, given her relationship not only to Hatchell but the UNC fans and teammates in attendance. “Everybody is here and they’re torn because it’s like we don’t know who to cheer for, we want both teams to win and unfortunately it can’t happen that way.  But it’s always fun to play against them.”

At the end of the night, the teams sounded like a set of relatives–sisters in the game–eager to share what they love with the ones they love and respect. It’s not the first meeting between Elon and UNC, and it may not be the last. In fact, Hatchell might have warmed up to coming over to Smith’s new place for the next reunion.

“This is a great facility,” said Hatchell of Schar Center. “I don’t know who designed this, but it is a great facility, and I’ve played in about all of them.”